How Nittany Lion Wrestling Club member Kyle Snyder won a wrestling world title

Three wrestlers with Penn State ties competed this week at the Senior World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, but just one came away with a world title.

Current Nittany Lions wrestler and incoming freshman PJ Duke (70 kilograms) kicked things off on Saturday, reigning NCAA champion Levi Haines (79 kg) hit the mat on Sunday and the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club’s Kyle Snyder (97 kg) was the final wrestler in action on Monday.

Haines and Snyder each made the finals of their respective weights, with Snyder the only one coming away with a gold medal.

Snyder, who captured his fourth world title and eighth world medal, topped Iran’s Amirali Azarpira, 4-2, on Tuesday.

The former Ohio State wrestler scored first thanks to a passivity point late in the first period, which was the lone point scored in the period. In the second period, Azarpira countered a shot from Snyder for a takedown early.

Snyder wasn’t deterred — he kept pressuring the Iranian wrestler into another passivity point with 45 seconds left. The former Olympic champ got a pushout point with eight seconds left for the winning score. Azarpira’s corner challenged for a late pushout point, but the challenge failed, giving Snyder one last point.

Snyder was dominant on his run to the finals, giving up just one point. He opened with a 10-0 technical superiority in the Round of 16 over Venezuela’s Cristian Colmenarez.

In the quarterfinals, Snyder blanked Poland’s Zbigniew Baranowski, 5-0. He made the finals with a 9-1 win over Japan’s Arash Yoshida.

Haines suffered a 3-2 loss Monday to Greece’s Georgios Kougioumtsidis, who was in the finals for the second time in his career.

Kougioumtsidis led 2-0 after the first period thanks to a passivity point and push out. Midway through the second period, the Greek wrestler took the Penn State wrestler out of bounds for another point.

Haines attempted to come back with a late takedown, but there wasn’t enough time left to complete the rally.

Duke went 1-1, and was eliminated on Sunday.

He opened with an 11-0 technical superiority victory over China’s Shuang Chen in the qualification round. In the round of 16, Duke suffered an 11-7 loss to the reigning world champ in Kazakhstan’s Nurkozha Kaipanov.

Kaipanov was later upset in the semifinals, keeping Duke from being able to wrestle for a bronze medal.